70 



but that, having regard to the real dis- 

 tance required to be covered in most 

 cases, I find the 14 feet rod with 

 which I can cast, at a pinch, over 30 

 yards in effect sufficient. 



There are of course some rivers, 

 and many well-known " casts" on them 

 where a longer rod is of advantage 

 perhaps in some instances a necessity 

 but where the difference cannot be made 

 up by wading, there is generally the 

 alternative of a more practicable cast 

 above or below. I have had two rods 

 I made of the length recommended 

 ; (about 14 ft.), one of Greenheart, by 

 Farlow, and the other by Hardy, of 

 ! Splitcane with steel centre. In the 

 former case the top joint is extra stout, 

 especially towards the point, which I 

 find gives both greater strength, and 

 greater casting power with the heavy 

 lines used in salmon fishing. Both 

 these rods I have described in the 

 Badminton Library of Sports, " Sal- 

 mon and Trout Fishing," and the 

 Editor, his Grace the Duke of Beaufort, 

 than whom I know no better judge of 

 the qualifications of a salmon rod, 

 expresses his entire concurrence in my advocacy of short rods^ 

 " I fully agree " (he says, in a foot-note) " an ordinary fly-fisher 

 seldom casts more than twenty yards properly? The greenheart 

 salmon rod in question, which, as well as the lake trout rod, 



